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The west coast, where there is a natural surreality in the landscape, has long been the home of many artists whose work draws from metaphysical and surrealistic sources. Some have worked together in various combinations and eventually made connections with the Paris-based groups who continued after the death of André Breton in 1966.
One of the principle writers to concentrate on the work of Canadian surrealists was the late José Pierre, who wrote L'Univers Surrealiste (editions Somogy, 1983) and a research paper, Surrealism in Canada (University Rabelais de Tours) which included members of the west coast group. Pierre worked with André Breton and co-organized exhibitions with him.
Another renowned Parisian historian of Surrealist art and collaborator with André Breton is Sarane Alexandrian who, with his numerous works on Surrealism and artists such as Victor Brauner, Max Ernst, Hans Bellmer and Jacques Hérold, has helped to keep the movement alive. He published the work of Gregg Simpson in the fall issue of Superiore Inconnu, a periodical which he began with André Breton in1947.
The PHASES Movement, created in 1945 by poet and artist, Edouard Jaguer during the Second World War to try and keep the surrealist spirit alive has exhibited and published the work of many Vancouver artists in the 1980s and early '90s.
Recognition in Canada began with the University of British Columbia in the 1973 exhibition, Canadian West Coast Hermetics and the 1971 Vancouver School of Collage. The year 1978 saw members of the West Coast Surrealist Group invited to exhibit in Surrealism Unlimited, organized by Conroy Maddox at London's Camden Art Centre. In 1979 Natalie Luckyj of Queens University organized a touring exhibition entitled Other Realities: The Legacy of Surrealism in Canadian Art which toured to the Canadian Cultural Centres in Paris and London. In the 1980s the movement was acknowledged by Dr. David Burnett in his comprehensive book, Contemporary Canadian Painting.
In 1997, Professor Yves M. Larocque received a doctorate from the Sorbonne for his thesis, the Idea of Surrealism in English Canada, which featured many references to the various west coast groups during over three decades. Adjudicating the thesis were some of the leading scholars of 20th century art in Europe. They included: Josée Vovelle, of the Sorbonne, whose other specialities include Dutch and Swedish Surrealism. The second adjudicator from the Sorbonne was Gerard Monnier, a proponent of diffusionist theory, Michel Remy, an expert on Surrealism in the U.K. A Canadian scholar, the author a book on French Canadian automaticism, Patrick Imbert, was also present from the University of Ottawa.
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